Discussion

LCBO "How to Taste" Class

Some of you wanted a post-mortem on this, so here we go. Took a class tonight at Summerhill LCBO, it was $25 to sign up. There were about 15 people there, in a small tasting room at the back, with one product consultant with us. We tasted 6 drinks - 2 whites, a beer, 2 reds, a port. They provided water and bread for palette-cleansing purposes. The course was 90 minutes plus (the consultant answered questions, etc, afterward) and was, overall, very informative. He went through the steps in tasting - appearance, aroma, taste, finish, etc. He gave us hints as to what to look for, smell for, taste for, etc.and also gave good information about general characteristics of various kinds of wine. By the end, I couldn't neccessarily distinguish eveything, and I hate port, but I definately learned how to label or pick out some of the things I taste/like in wines. Definately worth the money, a great date event, or just the sort of thing that would be fun to do to learn more and become wiser consumers - when you know how to describe what you like in a wine accurately, then you can ask for it more readily at the store or in (better) restaurants. Am definately going to try more classes in the future!-LL

Here is another " How to Taste class " approach...The Owner used to be the head Chef at Dish Cooking Studios...these classes look like fun with more edge than the average LCBO offerings. Great guest line up...but more expensive.

A few years back, I attended the scotch tasting evening at the LCBO. It was very informative, learning about methods and regions of production. We learned how to recognize different flavours and identify the region by those flavours. The offered up 8 or 10 defferent scotches of ranging costs, the highest being $250 a bottle. The also served salmon and cream cheese with crackers and also digestive cookies for palate cleansing. The class was full, and I believe the cost was $50.